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A man takes a call telling him that Rendell Locke* is dead… which is followed by a whole smattering of weird supernatural stuff happening which I won’t divulge here because… then you’ll be expecting it.
However, it is safe to say that the Locke family move to a new town and that once they’re settled in, the well talks back to young son Bode Locke (Jackson Robert Scott) in the form of an echo. The echo tells him there’s a key that can let him be a ghost, and one that changes the way he looks, and one that takes him anywhere else in the world. These keys are all in his house…
So, this sets the scene for a series which has a ton of possibilties, and when we see the keys, and mirrors et al, it’s very intriguing, but what I must say is that it takes over 30 minutes before he actually goes somewhere – to the ice-cream shop… well, why wouldn’t anyone else go there?
(*which you know from the fact that the trailer also teases a website at the end: RendellLockeIsDead.com)
What I can also say is that in addition to flashbacks, this first episode really feels like it takes an age to get going, and even then did feel like it did rather ‘borrow’ an element from the original Poltergeist involving a length of rope, so I hope it doesn’t go down the Doctor Who route of doing that all the time, and comes up with its own ideas.
However, this does have a decent cast, including Emilia Jones (Brimstone, Horrible Histories: The Movie) as Kinsey Locke, so despite a disappointing opener, I will try a second episode to see whether things go now that the ground has been laid for the premise. The trailer does show promise, so I hope it doesn’t drag things out over the remaining nine episodes.
UPDATE: Episode 2 was slightly better in that it had some great parts, but also times when it dragged. Without giving spoilers, we learned more about Echo, and there was some additional doors to go through, but it’s really holding back on all that when I want it to get stuck into it. The rest of it is just bringing up storylines which aren’t working for me, nor are they advancing the ‘key’ part of the story.
Comic book-based series and films can certainly pay dividends at times, as 2017’s Death Note showed, and I really wish we had a further movie to follow that one, or even… a series?
Locke And Key is not available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD, but is on Netflix from this Friday, February 7th.
Episode 1: 4/10
Episode 2: 5.5/10
Series Directors: Michael Morris, Vincenzo Natali, Tim Southam, Mark Tonderai, Dawn Wilkinson
Series Producers: Ra’uf Glasgow, Kevin Lafferty
Writers:Meredith Averill, Carlton Cuse, Aron Eli Coleite, Michael D Fuller, Elizabeth Ann Phang, Vanessa Rojas
Comic book: Joe Hill
Music: Torin Borrowdale
Cast:
Tyler Locke: Connor Jessup
Kinsey Locke: Emilia Jones
Bode Locke: Jackson Robert Scott
Nina Locke: Darby Stanchfield
Rendell Locke: Bill Heck
Eden Hawkins: Hallea Jones
Scot: Petrice Jones
Javi: Kevin Alves
Sam Lesser: Thomas Mitchell Barnet
Rufus Whedon: Coby Bird
Zadie Wells: Asha Bromfield
Dodge: Laysla De Oliveira
Gabe: Griffin Gluck
Logan Calloway: Eric Graise
Jackie Veda: Genevieve Kang
Brinker Martin: Kolton Stewart
Ellie Whedon: Sherri Saum
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.